Health care executives appear mostly upbeat about the vitality of that sector here in the coming year, despite continuing national uncertainty related to the implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act.
“We’re going to continue to be really in a state of transition” for probably the next couple of years, says Elaine Couture, CEO of Spokane-based Providence Health Care, the Inland Northwest’s largest health care network.
She adds, though, “I believe that there will always be jobs, and there will continue to be growth in the health care sector (here).”
The changes wrought by the health care reform legislation will be good for patients, Couture says, pushing health care providers to operate more efficiently and with a greater focus on achieving desired patient outcomes.
That said, the transition isn’t easy, Couture says.
“This has been a challenging year for us,” she says. “We didn’t meet our budget, but we’re not losing money.”
As part of a strategy that de-emphasizes hospitals as the center of the medical system, Providence is developing a $58 million medical center at 16528 E. Desmet Court, in Spokane, Valley, that it says will expand greatly the outpatient services it provides there.
In another sizable capital project, it also is wrapping up a $9.5 million expansion and remodel of the maternity center at Providence Holy Family Hospital on Spokane’s North side.
Dr. Craig Whiting, CEO of Rockwood Clinic, which provides primary-, urgent-, and specialty-care services at multiple locations here, says he’s feeling reasonably optimistic about the coming year, partly because of the intensified focus on value-based care under the Affordable Care Act.
Whiting says he believes both Rockwood Clinic and the Spokane-based Rockwood Health System, of which Rockwood Clinic is one part, are positioned to prosper in that environment.
He describes the relative shortage of primary care doctors, which has been a subject of concern nationally as more physicians retire and new ones choose more often to get into specialty care, as “probably our biggest challenge.”
Tom Fritz, CEO of Inland Northwest Health Services, which is one of Spokane County’s largest employers, says that with a steadily rising emphasis on electronic health records, “We’re going to continue to have significant growth in our company.”
He told the Journal recently that INHS’ information resource management division, one of three main divisions it operates and which does a lot of work for health care providers involving electronic health record systems, has the greatest potential to expand.
Steve Duvoisin, CEO for several companies here that operate under the Inland Imaging umbrella, says he expects their volume to be mostly flat next year, but considers that a positive in the current health care environment and is enthused by the industry transformation that’s continuing to unfold.
“I think physicians are starting to work as teams, as opposed to silos,” Duvoisin says, adding that with a heavier focus on measuring and improving patient outcomes, “I absolutely feel like we’re headed in the right direction.”